Sydney Uni in deal to take disadvantaged students

Heath Gilmore

ONE of the most elite universities in Australia is targeting poor and disadvantaged students for entry as long as they complete a year of study at a regional institution.

The University of Sydney has brokered a deal to lift its equity participation rates and bolster second-year enrolments, traditionally weakened through student drop-outs.

Under the agreement signed yesterday, the University of New England at Armidale will become a feeder institution by taking students from poorer backgrounds, identified as being talented despite recording low year 12 results.

After the students successfully complete one year of study at Armidale, they will move to the city to finish their courses at the University of Sydney.

The agreement signals the university sector taking another step away from the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) system as the main method for recruiting students. The university's vice-chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, has been challenging the worth of the ATAR system for more than a year. Top private schools and selective public schools usually dominate its lists of high achievers.

At present the University of Sydney recruits 65 per cent of undergraduates from the eastern suburbs and lower and upper north shore. Its enrolment of first-year students from disadvantaged schools was below 5 per cent last year.

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Dr Spence said the agreement would promote participation, social inclusion and a collaborative research framework that would benefit both institutions.

Professor Marie Bashir, the NSW Governor and chancellor of the University of Sydney, said that the agreement was ground-breaking.

''This agreement provides an incentive and an option for students from modest circumstances who want to study at the University of Sydney but who may not have excelled in the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank," she said.

The chancellor of the University of New England, Dr Richard Torbay, said his university was a leader in providing flexible study options for students across the country. "[New England] and our partners are opening the door to students everywhere to achieve their career ambitions and participate in higher education.''

The vice-chancellor of the University of New England, Jim Barber, said the program would begin in 2012, giving them time to match up course curriculum with the University of Sydney to ensure a seamless transfer of students. He said the agreement would use spare teaching capacity at his university and allow students with lower ATAR rankings to gain entry into the University of Sydney.

The New England students will top up course numbers in second year at Sydney after the usual attrition rates.

''This agreement means Sydney will not compromise its standards or adversely impact course entry cut-off scores which will affect its reputation,'' he said. ''They will be enrolled as University of Sydney students from day one but we can help out. It will provide a whole new group of kids a chance at gaining a chance at higher education.

''I think this country has to move on from seeing competition is the only show in town between unis.''

The University of New England started as a regional college of the University of Sydney, before gaining autonomy in 1954.